This is shocking news, but not too surprising: I know a few of the people in this facility, and when I talked to them last they were deeply concerned about this possibility. The University of Hawaii is planning to shut down the Kewalo Marine Laboratory. They’re doing it so they can funnel more money into the expansion of a cancer research center, which is certainly valuable, but not at the expense of closing half of their marine facilities. This is especially shocking because heck, when students here in the cold and land-locked midwest talk to me about going into marine biology, many of them ask about Hawaii — it’s only natural that they’d imagine a tropical island would be a haven for that kind of research, and it is. It’s just that the state doesn’t support it. This is an ironic fact:
The Kewalo scientists said that Florida, also an ocean state, has 22 marine labs. “Even Georgia would have more marine labs (four) than Hawaii” if the Kewalo facility goes, said Michael Hadfield, biosciences research center faculty member and former director.
So I should tell my students that Georgia would be a better place to study marine biology? That’s nice for the South, not so nice for Hawaii.
And it’s not as if Kewalo has been unproductive — they’ve turned out some amazing work. Mark Martindale is there, as the director. The man is a Very Big Name in the field of evo-devo — go back through my evo-devo posts, and he keeps popping up everywhere. He’s working on early pattern formation in the metazoans, and his papers are indispensable in understanding early evolutionary events.
An old friend of mine, Elaine Seaver, is also there and doing fabulous work on a promising new system, the polychaete worm Capitella. If you want to know about body plan evolution, we need the kind of comparative approach she’s taking.
Write. Contact:
Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Education
Hawaiʻi Hall 211
2500 Campus Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
808-956-7837
Let them know what an incredibly short-sighted decision this is, and what a failure of vision in the making. Not only does it harm the university immediately, damaging their reputation and costing them a useful facility, but think of the message it’s sending, that productive and esteemed faculty at the University of Hawaii can have their work so cavalierly dismissed and their laboratories demolished.
That sounds like the wrong idea by the university – I’m sure that there are better places to find the money needed
OMG! PZ Myers is against cancer research!
Yes, cancer research is important, but I agree, there is no reason to dismantle a productive research facility. An expansion, sure, but not at the expense of an older lab.
That’s a shame. I lived on Oahu for half a year before returning to the cold northeast and I heard many great things about the marine biology programs there. Still, trying to look on the bright side, at least that money will go toward doing excellent work… I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of that lab.
This is terrible news. Mark Martindale and many other researchers there have made huge contributions to the eco/evo/devo fields. This is just another sign of the times, in which any research that can’t be connected with a bright, clear, stupidity-proof line to some direct impact on human health is relegated to the bottom of the pile. I’ll write to the Uni, of course, but I’ll be really surprised if any state or federal funds are available to keep the facility open. We can only hope that some wealthy pineapple plantation owner swoops in with a big fat endowment to save the day.
They should open a bank subsidiary on Wall Street. Then lose a few tens of billions of dollars gambling.
The federal bailout should last them a few decades.
I’m certainly not knocking cancer research; I’m all for it, have donated toward it on multiple occasions, and would be upset at any cancer research facility being shortchanged.
That said, however, cancer research can be done ANYWHERE. Marine biology research, at least of any practical nature, necessitates a marine environment to study — which Hawaii is ideally suited to provide, better than most other states by far (including coastal ones). It would be much more sensible for Hawaii to play to its “natural strengths” in this situation. A cancer research center can be set up in Nebraska or Colorado, but research into ocean-based life is rather badly in need of an ocean.
~David D.G.
They should rename their facility the Kewalo Center For Bombing Brown People, then they’ll get more money than they’ll ever need.
They’re doing it so they can funnel more money into the expansion of a cancer research center, which is certainly valuable….
I’m guessing is that when university administrators think of a line of research being “valuable”, they are thinking in terms of large amounts of grant money coming into the university. I’m betting that to the administrators running U of H, this decision is an obvious “slam dunk”.
Pretty much the result when we (as a country, not us in this comment section) decide that all organizations should be run like a business.
These issues are especially ironic in light of the recent Nobel Prize in chemistry for GFP. GFP was discovered by marine biologists interested in the basic science of cnidarian bioluminescence. GFP has had and will have enormous influence on cancer research, and its origins are associated with marine labs. It just goes to show that science works as an entire enterprise, and funneling money away from certain areas because they might seem esoteric to a legislator or to the public is ridiculous.
Easy now, I live in Georgia! I think that it is insane that GA – with a short coastline – would have more marine research facilities than Hawaii. Given the climate, geography, etc. of Hawaii, it is indeed a SHAME that marine research would take a hit in order to expand a cancer center.
WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT AGAIN??????
We need urgent, swift and informed action to EXPAND scientific research, not to decrease it. Tax the f*ck out of the top 1% and pay for the damn marine research center. I am sure that there are more than a few of those 1-percenters who live and/or vacation in Hawaii.
Can’t they do both?
I’m in cancer research (sorta–I do surveillance), and as much as I think cancer research is important, we’ve already got any number of excellent dedicated facilities and university departments busting their asses and doing great work. The cancer registry in Alberta is the best in the country and among the top in North America (meaning we’ve got great data), but we don’t have fragile and rare island ecologies, nor extensive access to reefs (all ours turned to oil some time between the Devonian and now). Hawaii’s no slouch when it comes to cancer either, but c’mon! Reefs and sharks and squid and those cute little bobtails and turtles and seahorses and sharks with lasers and all those ocean thingies are important too.
Besides, from a public health perspective, the biggest impact anyone can have in reducing morbidity and mortality from cancer is to quit smoking, lose those extra pounds and go for a run around the block, and toss back a few extra servings of fruit and vegetables daily.
New Hampshire has 17 miles of coastline. Period. I think we have two marine labs, and very useful ones. I may be underestimating.
To hell with Georgia!
PZ, I’m rather surprised and disappointed by you. Sure, marine biology is a good and worthwhile thing to do, but the decision here is between marine bio and cancer research (IOW, trying to save human lives). It’s no contest.
-jcr
Marine biology (clearly, along with astronomy and volcanology) is an area in which there is simply no excuse for the University of Hawai’i not to excel. Having been born and raised there (a stone’s throw from the Manoa campus), this news is really sad to me, but not at all surprising. Hawai’i has problems with, umm, allocating money properly. They’ll get a letter from me. While I’m at it, I might as well include a plea for them not to sell off their telescope time at Keck.
Don’t you understand? It’s CANCER.
Cancer is the biggest unavoidable killer of wealthy white heteros in the world.
Cancer research needs the most money, the best PR, the greatest prestige and the most facilities. Otherwise a fraction of rich whites will continue to die from it.
Sure, I’m sure marine research is important, but people, make sure when you post in favour of it, you at least give massive props to the importance of finding that cure for cancer.
Just remember, YOU could die from cancer. You have a much smaller chance of dying from fish.
Didymus,
Don’t quit your day job.
Cancer kills a lot of people, rich and poor, young and old, of all races, often in very painful ways. Making fun of human suffering doesn’t make you funny, it makes you an asshole.
-jcr
The problem is that so much biology funding goes through the NIH. NIH is under the delusion that you can intentionally do research with the goal of curing diseases. Basic breakthroughs come not from trying to make breakthroughs, but by just searching and capitalizing on the unexpected breakthroughs.
So we see money going into cancer research, rather than into problems of cell-division. We fund attempts to understand the folding of “medically relevant” proteins rather than just trying to understand protein folding. And so forth and so on.
Imagine if in 1900 physics were funded under a “translational” model! Who would have researched quantum dynamics? No, people would have been funneled into improvements in radio — and it would have taken many, many decades for work in quantum physics to have “stolen” enough radio-research time. Which means that nuclear research would have been just as delayed — you would have had the exactly reversed effect you intended.
A breakthrough in cancer research is more likely to come from a marine biology lab than an ostensibly cancer research lab.
I spent two weeks at Kewalo a few years ago working with that amazing team, both the humans and the dolphins. They do incredible work there with limited funding, it would be a travesty for it to close.
This is terrible. Not only is it absolutely blockheaded (how does one come to the conclusion that Hawaii isn’t one of the best places for marine research?), but it also adds to the growing precedent in this country of “science only if it’s immediately useful.”
People are totally losing sight of what science actually is, and instead are expecting a field of study that cranks out new iPods and erectile dysfunction cures every week or so, without all that “unnecessary spending”.
A facepalm would be apropos.
It’s a damn shame that the powers that be in this State have decided to cut funding to Kewalo. Although it’s true that the State is extremely strapped of money, and there have to be cuts in certain areas, they always decide to go after education first. These fuckers, who’ve stuffed their pockets full, have no accountability for their actions, and in many ways, behave as though they’re a banana republic get away with too much malfeasance. They should give themselves a pay cut, get around to reducing the government corruption and waste, and actually maintain some accountability for their actions. They waste public funding on all sorts of diversionary projects, and yet, allow education to suffer. Well, in our developing economic recession, we can’t just rely on tourism alone.
The solution in my mind, beyond retooling administrative behavior, would be to legalize gambling in some way. Perhaps even some form of cruise gambling from one Island to the next. It would both solve the tourism problem, and allow an increase in the coffers for the State. Why would Japanese tourists travel all the way to a desert to gamble if they could travel half the distance to a nice tropical locale with a pleasant climate, and best of all, services that are already geared towards Japanese tourists. The fact is, out here, we have a small group of old generation individuals who actively prevent any changes that might actually benefit the population.
If you ever see the condition of our roads, you’de be shocked that Hawaii’s actually part of the US, and not some tertiary region in Iraq.
This is, for lack of a better word, disgusting. Now, dont get me wrong, I all for cancer research, but something said above is especially important. Science is not a business. It never has been and it never should be. Science is fundamentally about generating knowledge and the quest to understand the universe. Decisions about what should be funded or who should get space in a lab should never be about how many dollars can be generated through that knowledge but should be based on how productive the lab will be and how interesting the questions they are asking are.
@#17
See this is what I’m talking about. Any suggestion of diverting funds away from cancer is heresy. Why? Does anyone seriously thing that if we forgot about cancer completely and put all that funding, both public and the fortunes in private funding from people with an interest in patenting the first cancer cure, – into, say – curing malaria in places where people still die in droves from that. Curing diarrhoea in places where countless parents watch infants die of a disease with a cure so cheap us lucky thirdworlders wouldn’t even notice the change gone from our pockets.
You look me in the fucking eye and tell me cancer research gets all that funding and prestige because it deserves it.
John C. Randolph, #14: Sure, marine biology is a good and worthwhile thing to do, but the decision here is between marine bio and cancer research (IOW, trying to save human lives).
Hmm. By that reasoning, we should shut down all marine research and divert the money to cancer research. Shut down all the astronomical observatories, too. And NASA, and probably we could quit funding public parks and paved roads.
I’m sure that once we’ve diverted the entire economies of whole nations, we will find a cure for cancer next week!
Hey, wait a minute? Doesn’t malaria kill more people? Fuck cancer, we should shut down all the cancer research laboratories and put the money into malaria research.
@ #13
Well, with me living here in Georgia, I’m certain it will go straight to hell.
And we have to hear about it a day after Cephalopod Appreciation Day?
I aver that there are indeed some things that are sacred, and this is blasphemy.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Wait til that extremist Catholic attack dog what’s-his-face gets ahold of this: ATHEIST BLOGGER DENOUNCES CANCER RESEARCH! Yikes.
I do wish there was a way to fund both research programs. What about all the marine natural products that the pharmaceutical industry is interested in? It seems every week science is discovering new practical applications based on marine biology, like, oh, cancer-fighting compounds and silly stuff like that.
And there’s that little matter of the health of the oceans and the planet. Cutbacks are everywhere, and times are tight, but this drastic a measure is short-sighted.
JCR: PZ, I’m rather surprised and disappointed by you. Sure, marine biology is a good and worthwhile thing to do, but the decision here is between marine bio and cancer research (IOW, trying to save human lives). It’s no contest.
Once again proving your complete idiocy, and your complete misunderstanding of history and science. Newton wasn’t “trying” to build rocket ships; Einstein wasn’t “trying” to build TV sets, molecular simulations or extremely accurate clocks; Boltzmann wasn’t “trying” to develop energy efficient & cool transistors.
Keep your nose to the grind-stone and all you’ll get is nose-burns.
JCR: PZ, I’m rather surprised and disappointed by you. Sure, marine biology is a good and worthwhile thing to do, but the decision here is between marine bio and cancer research (IOW, trying to save human lives). It’s no contest.
Once again proving your complete idiocy, and your complete misunderstanding of history and science. Newton wasn’t “trying” to build rocket ships; Einstein wasn’t “trying” to build TV sets, molecular simulations or extremely accurate clocks; Boltzmann wasn’t “trying” to develop energy efficient & cool transistors.
Keep your nose to the grind-stone and all you’ll get is nose-burns.
From the article:
But Gary Ostrander, vice chancellor for research and graduate education and interim director of the Pacific Biosciences Research Center,[…]said he doesn’t know of any other university with two marine laboratories within 15 miles.
Hm, that would be because no other US university is in the middle of the fucking ocean. Plus, most vice chancellors understand that when you have something no other university has, it’s usually a selling point.
And jcr, do you work in cancer research? If not, why the hell not?? It’s killing people! You’re killing people by not putting all of your time and effort into researching cancer!!!!!!!
#14: I thought that the GFP Nobel would have been a fairly powerful refutation – a protein isolated from a jellyfish turns out (after a lot of work) to have a lot of applications in a variety of biological areas. It was something that would not have been found if short-term profit (either in monetary or research terms) were the goal (it obviously took a lot of research to figure out how it worked).
Looking for long-term utility by finding what makes you money in the short term is not a winning strategy.
Governments and Big Business look at one thing- bottom line. Is there a profit with the Marine Lab? Obviously cancer cures are the holy grail of pharmaceutical companies- where is their money going to go? Cancer is going to be one of the two big health problems for the West in the next 20 or so years, the other being ‘senility’ related degeneration, such as Alzheimers. With an aging population these are going to be the upfront money spinners.
Of course what would be the most profitable would be one that makes no money (eh I hear you say). Global Overheating research. Let us imagine all the funds thrown at ‘sexy'(in a research way) and non-contentious subjects, like cancer is instead put into GW research. OK some more people may die of cancer, as opposed to the whole planet if Global Warming/Overheating is true and not stopped.
Even if GW is not true, what have we lost? Think of it as insurance- you don’t hope to get burgled just so the some insurance premiums aren’t wasted. You don’t say “hell, another year without the roof blowing off, I won’t by insurance next year”. At the very worst we are going to discover more about how the ecology of this planet fits together, and what to do when there is natural heating/cooling cycle.
Governments and Big Business look at one thing- bottom line. Is there a profit with the Marine Lab? Obviously cancer cures are the holy grail of pharmaceutical companies- where is their money going to go? Cancer is going to be one of the two big health problems for the West in the next 20 or so years, the other being ‘senility’ related degeneration, such as Alzheimers. With an aging population these are going to be the upfront money spinners.
Of course what would be the most profitable would be one that makes no money (eh I hear you say). Global Overheating research. Let us imagine all the funds thrown at ‘sexy'(in a research way) and non-contentious subjects, like cancer is instead put into GW research. OK some more people may die of cancer, as opposed to the whole planet if Global Warming/Overheating is true and not stopped.
Even if GW is not true, what have we lost? Think of it as insurance- you don’t hope to get burgled just so the some insurance premiums aren’t wasted. You don’t say “hell, another year without the roof blowing off, I won’t by insurance next year”. At the very worst we are going to discover more about how the ecology of this planet fits together, and what to do when there is natural heating/cooling cycle.
I have worked in cancer research in Europe for the past fifteen years. In all that time, like many others here I have been entirely funded through private cancer charities rather than government support – in contrast to the impression I get from the US where research is much more dependent on State funding and with the NIH being the major provider of such funding.
If that is the case and the NIH prioritizes cancer research over marine biology then the University is simply following the money.
Basic research is simply not an important point for the US voting population and unless that changes research centers will remain vunerable to situations facing marine biology in Hawaii.
Why don’t you just tax the churches and use that money to fund health research while use the current NIH money to fund basic science?
Sunshine Coast, Australia. Much better than Hawaii or Georgia (definitely better than Georgia).
Wow! I am surprised that anyone who reads Scienceblogs could that narrow view of anything. Even if you believe that all research has to be done with some immediate practical benefit for humanity (already a pretty myopic view), you have to realize that a lot of marine biology has at least as direct effect on humans as much of the stuff done under the guise of ‘cancer research.’ The ocean provides the major source of food for many countries and a huge seafood industry in many others, including the US. That alone should justify supporting marine biology.
Hawaii seems like a good place for a marine biology research facility, what with all that ocean nearby.
Move the cancer research to Wyoming.
@Jay “Sunshine Coast, Australia. Much better than Hawaii or Georgia (definitely better than Georgia)”
No send them to California! Scripts, Long Marine Labs, Seymour, MBARI, MLML etc… Oh I guess I’m biased having spent many an hour in Marine Bio lectures here
Once again proving your complete idiocy
Same to you, I’m sure.
I’m quite as aware as you are of the history of science, and the question at hand isn’t whether to fund Issac Newton or Albert Einstein, or basic research in general.
It’s whether to complain to a university administrator, for choosing cancer research over marine biology, given that he has to allocate limited resources. I say he made the right call, and I’m sure it was quite difficult enough for him to do so without a bunch of people who don’t share his responsibilities griping at him about it.
-jcr
@ 39
If I were to guess (not researched) I would bet the administrator made decision totally based on his status survival and I would even go so far to say the cancer program is probably redundant.Tho I my be talking out my _ _ _.
@ 39
If I were to guess (not researched) I would bet the administrator made the decision totally based on his status survival and I would even go so far to say the cancer program is probably redundant.Tho I may be talking out my _ _ _.
You seem to assume that funding cancer research will ultimately save more lives than funding marine biology, and that seems rather short-sighted. For one thing, the pure research furthers our understanding in all sorts of areas, including our own medical sciences (dare I say, even cancer research). And beyond that, it furthers our understanding of the world’s largest ecosystem — one we remain ignorant about at our own peril. If we manage to completely fuck up that up, it’s going to kill a lot more people than cancer.
Did everything right and still double post.
It’s whether to complain to a university administrator, for choosing cancer research over marine biology, given that he has to allocate limited resources.
Right. And the choice was A) allocate resources to a thriving research program that they are uniquely positioned to be the best in the country in, with the most natural fit for the location, with the best “hook” for drawing students and research money possible, with the competitive benefit that they can do the research cheaper than anyone else because they don’t have as much in travel costs to get to the ocean, or B) ignore everything that might make their school special and unique and pour the money into a research program just like every other large school in the country has, but with the added “benefit” that they’re really far away from all the others and have a really high cost of living to go along with it which will make it difficult to entice faculty away from the mass of competition.
Lou Dobbs’ crazy ass is trying to stir up racist hatred against urban black people for winning the election.
SO HERE’S A POLL
“Are you concerned that radical left-wing activist groups [ACORN] are trying to manipulate the outcome of this presidential election?”
http://loudobbs.tv.cnn.com/
This in spite of the facts, as investigated by our own Ed Brayton, that ACORN is the victim of fraud, not the perpetrator. (google “scienceblogs acorn”)
Elaine Seaver? Isn’t that Kirk Cameron’s mom?
Well Carlie, I can see from your vehemence, that you must have a far better grasp of the issues than the people who actually had to make the decision and take the consequences, so go right ahead and tell them how to do their jobs. I’m sure they’ll be grateful for your wisdom.
-jcr
JCR: I’m quite as aware as you are of the history of science, and the question at hand isn’t whether to fund Issac Newton or Albert Einstein, or basic research in general… I say he made the right call, and I’m sure it was quite difficult enough for him to do so without a bunch of people who don’t share his responsibilities griping at him about it.
Ah, the responses of a buffoon. Firstly, this is exactly how research decisions are made on “whether to fund Albert Einstein”. The availability of local support is crucial in getting federal funding.
Secondly, there is the classic “The Authorities knows best — who are you to second guess them”.
That is a universal class howler. Some administrators are very good — but they are few and far between. Anyone with a minimal experience in bureaucracy knows that competence is often inversely related to success in a bureaucratic structure — particularly when folks get cowed by “Don’t second-guess the authorities” type talk.
The only times we get good “authorities” is when they are constantly being second-guessed, constantly being forced to defend their decisions public, constantly being forced to divulge their information. The truth is that the weight of authority is only demanding when there is public demand; otherwise, it’s good to be the king. It’s the little people who have the weight on their soldiers.
Buffoon. Maroon. Yosetime Sam looks like a wise man, indeed. Idjit. Got the entire world upside down.
Be a good little boot-licker.
Administrators are not scientists. I’ve met a lot of administrators in academia who have zero knowledge of the sciences they’re handling. A few months back, some retards in the physics department tried to shove Advanced Classical Mechanics into the first semester, ignoring the protests of the professors (and the students). It’s not nearly as big an issue as what UH is currently facing, but it does show that the people calling the shots may not necessarily be the most qualified to do so, and somebody better tell them how to do their jobs properly, or everyone’s screwed.
@48–Damn frog,,,you nailed it.
You have got to be within the authoritarian structure to have understood it so well.No one outside of this particular structure could see the immediate blinded decision process that sometimes dominates education so thoroughly. IM(limited)HO.
FO, you nailed it. Stupid decisions are made in every field by stupid people who’ve managed to get themselves into positions of power. Unfortunately it’s not confined to academia. There doesn’t even need to be a reason, it’s just “Hmm. How can I satisfy my egotistical power-tripping needs while destroying the maximum number of people’s work and possibly lives?” It’s enough to make one want a species-change operation, possibly with the idea of becoming a monkey waiter.
Though I suppose even the monkey waiters have bosses.
I forgot to say: another reason to vote Obama. He’s sure to send some pork to his native state.
This is just silly. They will over time struggle to recruit and retain top class staff in somewhere like Hawai’i. It is too far from anywhere in a climate of high and increasing transport costs, which includes shipping lab consumables. Places like that attract people who are there because of the opportunities to play hard, not necessarily to work too hard. You also cannot just pop down the road for a seminar at a neighbouring place. That is what makes the triangle in the Carolinas and big cities with multiple universities and institutes such good places to do science.
I have done science in Southern New Zealand (they have a marine lab and it’s valued) and in London. NIMR in outer London is threatened with having it’s greenfield space sold off to property developers and moved to a tower in Central London (with crap mouse space) all in the name of better research coordination. Hawai’i cannot compete effectively in Cancer. The ONLY justification I can see would be if they were studying something specific to Polynesians but I see no suggestion of that.
So they are going to downgrade something Perfect for its location, even somewhat unique with a mid grade generic facility found all over the planet.
JCR have you any fucking idea how hard it is to find research money for anything that is NOT cancer? Cancer money is easy, it is a gravy train. You are merely displaying your ignorance. Now show us you are not stupid and learn.
They will over time struggle to recruit and retain top class staff in somewhere like Hawai’i.
I think perhaps you meant to specify that they might struggle to retain top cancer researchers there? It was a bit unclear on first reading. They don’t seem to have problems attracting top notch staff in marine ecology, just for comparison, which of course supports exactly what you say here:
So they are going to downgrade something Perfect for its location, even somewhat unique with a mid grade generic facility found all over the planet.
that’s it in a nutshell, ain’t it?
It would be like taking the field lab in Moorea and converting it into a facility to train med students.
Yes Ichthyic I was perhaps not quite clear enough. I strongly suspect that attracting top flight marine scientists is not a problem for Hawai’i. Unless you are into penguin ecology of course ;-)
Isolation is perhaps a given in the field. Not everywhere is Woods Hole. But if you are into fish and don’t want to live near your wild research subjects there’s always zebrafish. Right PZ?
This news is extremely saddening to me. Our university (University of Hawaii) has been constantly pouring money into the brand spanking new cancer research center, not even located near our campus. They neglected a large number of researchers who were left behind (non-patent directed researchers) when the new research center was built, and constantly spend enormous amounts of money on that place while our chemistry, biology, and physics departments are falling apart.
It is so odd, I seem to find myself ranting about that cancer research center every couple of months. The only good that ever came out of that cancer research center is that it moved most of the assholes away from the main campus.
I’m really shocked to hear about this. Some great basic science combining molecular and developmental biology with marine science has come out of the Kewalo lab. I did the first year of my PhD there and since then everything I’ve heard from my friends and colleagues just reinforces the fact that it has continued that history of excellence.
This is just extremely sad. Bob Kane must be turning in his grave.
They neglected a large number of researchers who were left behind (non-patent directed researchers) when the new research center was built, and constantly spend enormous amounts of money on that place while our chemistry, biology, and physics departments are falling apart.
It’s not a new story, sad to say. Whenever there is significant cash available from particular donor source, unis have a tendency to shitcan everything else in favor of going after the new source and exploiting it to its full potential.
I saw the same thing when I was at Berkeley. In the late 80’s most of the the money (from many sources) was coming in to MCB, so they tossed basically all other biology related disciplines into the can called “Integrative Biology”, and of course cut each of the original depts. funding to fit. Zoology, Botany, Ecology, etc., all dumped into “Integrative Biology”, and most of us tossed around campus like so much fluff.
at least there, they at least tried to pretend it was to “encourage interdisciplinary study”.
har har.
I’m really shocked to hear about this. Some great basic science combining molecular and developmental biology with marine science has come out of the Kewalo lab
You know, I seem to recall that there’s been a LOT of good stuff coming out of that lab for a long time now.
I think it would be great if you, or someone familiar with the lab’s publication output, would put a short bibliography together of some of the more notable publications, and we could attack a link to that (or even paste it right into this thread).
then those of us who are interested in helping to save the lab could send that publication list along with our requests, in recognition of the absolute value the lab has been in furthering our knowledge.
Can you contact the lab and get a list like that?
attack-> attach.This is Dr. Ostrander’s reply to me:
Dave,
I appreciate that you have taken the time to contact us with your concerns relative to the Kewalo Marine Laboratory (KMW). As you note, we have determined that we are not be able to continue to support the operations of the KML. This is one of two Marine Laboratories operated by the University of Hawai’i – Manoa, in addition to a Public Aquarium and partnership in the Palmyra Coral Reef Atoll Consortium. The other marine laboratory (the much more extensive Hawai’i Institute for Marine Biology) is also located about 20 minutes from campus and is surrounded by 64 acres of coral reef.
The KML is relatively small urban facility located on leased land and is currently home to the research programs of only 4 faculty members. The Hawai’i Community Development Authority has unambiguously stated that they have plans for that site and it will not be available to the UH long-term. The building is deteriorating and even with the infusion of $300,000 – $500,000 in R&M it is not likely to last 10 years. In 2006/2007 we explored possibilities of new facilities in the new Cancer Center, the medical school, or the planned Asia Pacific Research Center underdevelopment by Kamahamaha Schools. The projected costs (determined by two different developers) were in the range of 30-32 million dollars for a facility that would house 10 faculty members, their labs, and adequate seawater.
Given the other priorities of the Mānoa campus we do not have the resources to replace the KMW at this time. For example, some of the faculty displaced by a fire that destroyed a building in the College of Education 2 years ago are still working at home. Likewise, safety concerns after the fire and flood in another building, which houses our Zoology and Biology programs, has accelerated the need to complete a major renovation. This is a priority to address the needs of our Zoology faculty with their extensive teaching and research responsibilities. To date we have explored a number of private foundation, legislative, congressional and federal agency options to maintain the KML facility. Unfortunately, nothing has materialized. As such, we will be forced to close this facility within 5 years.
In conclusion, while we are not happy with the prospect of closing this facility, please note that all the activities currently underway can be conducted in other facilities at the University of Hawai’i. As such, the activities, collaboration, and benefits you describe in your letter can and will continue.
Regards,
GKO
This is Dr. Ostrander’s reply to me:
Dave,
I appreciate that you have taken the time to contact us with your concerns relative to the Kewalo Marine Laboratory (KMW). As you note, we have determined that we are not be able to continue to support the operations of the KML. This is one of two Marine Laboratories operated by the University of Hawai’i – Manoa, in addition to a Public Aquarium and partnership in the Palmyra Coral Reef Atoll Consortium. The other marine laboratory (the much more extensive Hawai’i Institute for Marine Biology) is also located about 20 minutes from campus and is surrounded by 64 acres of coral reef.
The KML is relatively small urban facility located on leased land and is currently home to the research programs of only 4 faculty members. The Hawai’i Community Development Authority has unambiguously stated that they have plans for that site and it will not be available to the UH long-term. The building is deteriorating and even with the infusion of $300,000 – $500,000 in R&M it is not likely to last 10 years. In 2006/2007 we explored possibilities of new facilities in the new Cancer Center, the medical school, or the planned Asia Pacific Research Center underdevelopment by Kamahamaha Schools. The projected costs (determined by two different developers) were in the range of 30-32 million dollars for a facility that would house 10 faculty members, their labs, and adequate seawater.
Given the other priorities of the Mānoa campus we do not have the resources to replace the KMW at this time. For example, some of the faculty displaced by a fire that destroyed a building in the College of Education 2 years ago are still working at home. Likewise, safety concerns after the fire and flood in another building, which houses our Zoology and Biology programs, has accelerated the need to complete a major renovation. This is a priority to address the needs of our Zoology faculty with their extensive teaching and research responsibilities. To date we have explored a number of private foundation, legislative, congressional and federal agency options to maintain the KML facility. Unfortunately, nothing has materialized. As such, we will be forced to close this facility within 5 years.
In conclusion, while we are not happy with the prospect of closing this facility, please note that all the activities currently underway can be conducted in other facilities at the University of Hawai’i. As such, the activities, collaboration, and benefits you describe in your letter can and will continue.
Regards,
GKO
@ # 62,
“The Hawai’i Community Development Authority has unambiguously stated that they have plans for that site and it will not be available to the UH long-term”
As I suspected! The land that the Kewalo Lab sits on is worth a small fortune. I can only imagine the wheeling and dealing over this one. I can only hope that the HCDA will do what they say they intend to do in the Star Bulletin article, which is to find a new home for the lab. Since the Kewalo Lab has a program for Pacific Islanders, and Hawaiians are deeply interested in the ocean, it may be worth writing these people who sit on the HCDA board of directors:
MICAH KANE*
Chairman
Hawaiian Homes Commission
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
STANTON K. ENOMOTO*
Special Assistant to the Administrator
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
I would like to see the lab expanded and relocated to Waianae –a rapidly growing, yet still underprivileged Hawaiian fishing community where there would be huge cross benefits, not to mention cheaper land close to the ocean.
It is not human interests verses marine life. That is simply a diversionary tactic. One of the coolest things I have ever seen is the beating of a dolphin’s heart using the same scanning technology as used in human cardiology. If that doesn’t make a person feel connected, nothing will. I recommend it for the environmentally impaired.
Sadly, it is people like money fingers Ostrander, who are out of touch with local values and have no aloha for the sea, that make the decisions. When I was in danger of flunking out of high school, a school counselor got me hands on student internships at U.H. marine research labs to keep me in school. Children, especially Hawaiian children, love anything to do with learning about the sea, and if you use it as a tie in, you can teach them virtually anything. I think Ostrander needs to wake up and smell the brine.
In 2006/2007 we explored possibilities of new facilities in the new Cancer Center, the medical school, or the planned Asia Pacific Research Center underdevelopment by Kamahamaha Schools
Kamahamaha?
Quick, someone call Goku, he can fix this.
Joshu #20 asked, “…(how does one come to the conclusion that Hawaii isn’t one of the best places for marine research?)…”
I suppose, with the same logic that concludes that Hawaii is specially well-suited for cancer research.
I guess islands must be very therapeutic.
Well froggie, did you enjoy your tantrum? Far more satisfying than (say) making a contribution of your own resources to support research that you find worthwhile, wasn’t it?
I’m sure that anyone seeking funding for scientific research would be happy and proud to have you on their side.
-jcr